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ExpertsTemple Grandin, PhD, PAS Dr. Grandin is considered the world's leading expert on farmed-animal welfare. She is an associate professor of livestock behavior at Colorado State University and an animal welfare advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the meat industry. In response to this investigation, Dr. Grandin states: I viewed the calf farm video and the euthanasia practices were terrible. Handling practices during unloading of the trailer were rough and stressful. Picking a calf up by the ears and the tail is stressful and cruel. The living conditions for the calves were filthy. It is obvious that both the management and the employees have no regard for animal welfare.
Holly Cheever, DVM Dr. Cheever is a veterinary practitioner, licensed in the states of New York and Vermont, who has had a lifetime of exposure to dairy cattle. Dr. Cheever is a graduate of Cornell’s School of Veterinary Medicine and assists local and state law enforcement officers in the investigation and prosecution of animal abuse, frequently in cases involving dairy cattle. Dr Cheever states: The workers use a dehorning iron and in one occasion, a disbudding scoop. In each case, the calf bellows in pain and exhibits the wide-eyed, white-ringed eyes evincing their terror… Please note that in all mammalian species, the skin covering the skull is highly innervated and therefore, trauma to this area is extremely painful. Overall: this operation shows unacceptable brutality in the handling of these calves. Even animals destined for eventual slaughter should be given humane handling in all aspects of their lives and also should be given a humane, clean environment in which to live their lives.
Debra Teachout, DVM, MVSc Dr. Teachout is a practicing veterinarian who graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. She also holds an advanced degree in veterinary clinical pathology from Western College of Veterinary Medicine and has completed additional coursework in farmed-animal welfare. Dr. Teachout states: There is evidence of overt animal cruelty and neglect in this facility. Death by hammer blows to the head is an unspeakably brutal way to die for any animal. There is total disregard for proper calf husbandry or treatment. Caretaker interactions with calves are threatening, heavy-handed and totally unacceptable with calf welfare and suffering not a priority at all. Standards for sanitation are appalling, suggesting there are likely no standards at all. The physical and psychological needs of the calves are ignored and jeopardized by management at this facility. The calves are undeniably suffering. This facility should be shut down immediately.
Armaiti May, DVM, CVA Dr. May is a practicing veterinarian with experience treating farmed animals, who received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from U.C. Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 2005. Dr. May states: My overall impression is that the facility where this footage was taken is that it lacks regard for the basic welfare of the animals in its care and does not have proper supervision of its workers. I recommend that charges of animal cruelty be brought against the workers involved and that the farm be shut down for cruel treatment of animals and lack of proper oversight of its workers.
Jonathan Balcombe, PhD Dr. Balcombe is an ethologist with Bachelors and Masters degrees in biology, and a Doctorate in animal behavior from the University of Tennessee. He is the author of four books on animal behavior, as well as more than 40 book chapters and peer-reviewed journal papers. Dr. Balcombe states: [T]he conditions I witnessed in this video are tragic and deeply disturbing. Baby animals have been taken from their mothers and subjected to a world without love, nurturing or sympathy. Instead they are treated coldly and brutally until they die of neglect or malnutrition, or perhaps chronic misery. The carpenter's hammer used to strike these calves in the head is woefully inadequate to kill them reliably.
Lee Schrader, DVM Dr. Schrader is a practicing veterinarian, who obtained her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Schrader has over 35 years of experience working with animals, particularly animals with serious, difficult-to-diagnose disorders. Dr. Schrader states: The behavior depicted in this video is some of the most inhumane, sadistic and brutal behavior I have ever seen. In my opinion, the handling of these young calves is inhumane and without excuse.
Terry Engle, PhD Dr. Engle is an associate professor at Colorado State University and a beef cattle authority. This is absolutely unbelievable. Euthanasia of sick and/or injured animals MUST be immediate. Using a hammer to euthanize sick and/or injured calves is absolutely inappropriate ... These actions must be stopped immediately.
Three experts co-authored a written statement, which reflects the consensus of the group. The authors are: Bernard E. Rollin, PhD Dr. Rollin is a Distinguished Professor of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University and is well known internationally for his over 30 years of work in animal welfare. He was a major architect of federal laws protecting laboratory animals, and has written two books on farmed-animal welfare. He serves on the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production and is an expert witness on animal welfare issues in the U.S. and abroad. William Wailes, BS Mr. Wailes is an extension dairy specialist for the Department of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University. He is also an internationally renowned dairy expert, who has owned and been involved with dairy farms all of his life. Terry Engle, PhD Dr. Engle is an associate professor at Colorado State University and a beef cattle authority. These three experts reviewed the video documenting conditions at E6 Cattle Co. They state: [T]his current video of atrocities committed at what appears to be a calf ranch, is without a doubt one of the worst I have ever seen. Most egregious is the method of killing calves utilized by the workers. Anyone possessed of an ounce of common sense or common decency would know even without being told that one does not kill a calf by bludgeoning it repeatedly on the head with a claw hammer ... Given the non-secretive way in which these workers went about killing the animals, I must assume that the owner and/or manager of the farm knows what is going on and expresses no disapproval. A number of calves are covered with nasty, open sores which very likely come from their being bedded on quicklime with no straw protecting them from its corrosive effects. The handling of these calves is also so outrageous as to count as cruelty, as when the animals are roughly and painfully picked up by the ears and tail, something so obviously hurtful that one hardly needs any experience with calves to know that it is wrong. [We] urge everyone in a position of authority to serve notice to the world that this sort of behavior has no place in a society wishing to consider itself civilized. These people must be corrected with the full force of the legal system. If we allow such deviant and blatant cruelty to go unpunished, we are in effect condoning that sort of behavior, something we surely have no desire to do.
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